Too Much Advice

Every day, when I pull up my author email account, I'm faced with an entire page or two of unopened emails. This unsettles me. I crave order, and when I don't have it, I feel a bit defeated, like I'm falling down on the job. 

It's my own fault, of course; I've subscribed to far too many publications/Substacks/publishing blogs, because I was afraid of missing out on that one gem that would solve all my marketing problems. Well, today I finally began tackling those unread messages that have been glaring at me, pissed off and tsk-tsking. I sure don't need reproach from these strangers---I can find enough disapproval on my own, thank you.  

So, I diligently opened and scanned almost all of them, clicked on a few links that looked promising; discovered a couple of articles that told authors what not to do (I passed those tests), but found very few that said what to do, and sadly, I've done all those things already. They don't work. Even David Gaughran, who's normally a genial cheerleader for indie authors, wrote a missive that came across as rather discouraging and defeatist. 

Bottom line, too much bandwidth has been wasted on useless advice, and I'm just the sucker who fell for it. 

What I've begun to realize, without the assistance of those scores of emails, is that few people read books anymore. None of the gurus want to tell us that, and I wouldn't either, if I was trying to sell services to indie publishers. But they all know it. It's akin to a certain "mystery" that's been in the news for the last few weeks---everyone knows who did it, but no one is brave enough to say it out loud. We indies are marketing to an ever-shrinking customer base, and my potential base wasn't that big to begin with. This is an important fact to absorb, because it explains a lot. That realization has certainly affected my mindset. For one thing, I can stop blaming myself for my novel's failure. One of those fifty-to-sixty emails that I actually found valuable contained a Substack post titled, "Why We Can't Focus Anymore: The Hidden Cost of Our Attention Economy". (This post is free, by the way. I can't afford to monetarily support any Substack accounts.) While explaining why our publishing lives are so miserable (well, at least mine is), the author encourages writers to develop long-term relationships with (potential or real) readers. I like the concept. I don't know how to execute it, but I like it. Maybe Substack is truly the way to do it, although my sporadic Substack posts get no readers, but neither do my books, so...

I'd love to develop a relationship with readers, but it takes two to tango. I can talk and talk and talk, but if nobody's listening, that's sort of a problem. 

Anyway, I'm slowly, hesitatingly, unsubscribing from many of my email lists. Hesitatingly, because I hate hurting anyone's feelings. They likely won't care, though, or even notice. Aside from all the promo sites, I'm now weighing the value of individual "experts", a few of whom I like, more for their personalities than their advice. 

I might be a marketing failure, but I will have order, dammit!